Departmental Public Relations

James Duddridge
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much (a) her Department and (b) its agencies spent on each of the external public relations and marketing companies included in the Central Office of Information's Public Relations Framework in each of the last 36 months.

Mr. Hoon
The total expenditure figures for external public relations support for the Department for Transport and Executive Agencies, not all of which is commissioned through COI's PR framework, are set out in the following table. The figures, which are rounded, cover the last three fiscal years and include the cost of public relations agency fees and the cost of public relations promotions in various media. Monthly expenditure figures could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.

The prime use of external public relations is in support of our marketing activities on the THINK! road safety, Act on C02, European Whole Vehicle Type Approval, and Concessionary Bus Fares campaigns, and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's continuous registration campaign.

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|Department for Transport            |2005-06|2006-07|2007-08|
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|DfT Central                         |255    |362    |625    |
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|Driving Standards Agency            |0      |0      |0      |
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|Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency |872    |371    |500    |
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|Highways Agency                     |0      |0      |0      |
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|Vehicle and Operator Services Agency|0      |26     |27     |
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|Maritime and Coastguard Agency      |73     |79     |53     |
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|Vehicle Certification Agency        |0      |0      |0      |
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|Government Car and Despatch Agency  |0      |0      |0      |
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The Department and Executive Agencies do not appoint any marketing agencies under the Central Office of Information's Public Relations Framework. We have however incurred marketing spend. Figures for the Department and Executive Agencies for the 2007-08 fiscal year are as follows:

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|Department for Transport            |2007-08 (£)  |
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|DfT Central                         |26.7 million |
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|Driving Standards Agency            |299,700      |
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|Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency |10.4 million |
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|Highways Agency                     |1.6 million  |
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|Vehicle and Operator Services Agency|57,000       |
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|Maritime and Coastguard Agency      |1.075 million|
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|Vehicle Certification Agency        |80,500       |
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|Government Car and Despatch Agency  |171,800      |
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Again the Department's major areas of marketing spend were in support of our marketing activities on the THINK! road safety campaign, Act on C02 campaign, Concessionary Bus Fares campaign, aviation security and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's continuous registration campaign.